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was translated into the vernacular,18 with the oldest Icelandic manuscript
dating to around 1340.19 An inventory dated 1461 from the monastery at
möðruvellir lists both a Latin and a vernacular version.20 the (admittedly
fragmentary) Icelandic version of the Vitae Patrum does not contain a Vita
Basilii, and the Latin recension of the Vitae patrum that might once have
served as its source matches poorly with Lbs fragm 74. the definitive
textual transmission of the Vitae Patrum remains to be written, but the
rosweydian text, which serves as the basis for modern scholarship, relies
for its Vita Basilii on a translation from the Greek by Ursus, BHL number
1022, whereas Lbs fragm 74 follows the translation by Euphemius, number
1023 in the BHL.21
It does not appear that st. Basil served as the patron saint for any of
Iceland’s churches or monasteries,22 which removes any obvious candi-
dates for the site of the original translation of Basil’s life into Icelandic.
the only church inventories to list material related to st. Basil are those
of the monastery at möðruvellir and of the churches at kolbeinsstaðir
and Búrfell. the copious holdings of möðruvellir list numerous books
with Latin titles, but under the rubric Þessar norrænv bækur is listed basilius
saga. the very modest inventory at kolbeinsstaðir lists eina Sögubok og er
þar a Nichulas saga. Ambrosius saga oc Basilius saga, and the lives of the first
two saints are known to exist in Icelandic.23 the church at Búrfell lists v.
Mariuskript. Basiliusskriptt,24 which, in this context, is probably a pictorial
representation, since, though skript could mean a writ or scripture, ritning
would be the more usual term.
18 Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder efter gamle haand-
skrifter, ed. C. r. unger, 2 vols. (oslo: [n.p.], 1877).
19 Wolf, The Legends of the Saints, 394.
20 Diplomatarium Islandicum, vol. 5 (Copenhagen and reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmennta-
félag, 1899–1902), 288 –90.
21 nor does there appear to be a direct relationship between Basilius saga and the Old
Swedish Sagan om S. Basilius, printed in Ett forn-svenskt legendarium, innehållande medeltids
kloster-sagor om helgon, påfvar och kejsare ifrån det I:sta till det xiii:de århundradet efter gamla
handskrifter, edited by george Stephens, vol. 1, Samlingar utgivna af Svenska fornskriftsäll-
skapet, vol. 7 (Stockholm: norstedt, 1847), 601–605.
22 margaret Cormack, The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conversion to 1400,
Subsidia Hagiographica, vol. 78 (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1994).
23 Diplomatarium Islandicum, vol. 4 (Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1895), 182.
24 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 4:90.
tHe L I F E O F S T . B A S I L IN ICeLANd
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